Court Rules GPL Doesn't Violate Antitrust Laws

unix4reel writes "Internet Cases reports on a new decision from a federal court in Chicago holding that 'the GPL and open-source have nothing to fear from the antitrust laws. The suit was against IBM, Red Hat and Novell, arguing that by distributing Linux for free, they offered products at an unbeatably low price (free), thus discouraging new market entrants and stifling competition. The court took a different view, focusing instead on how the GPL fosters new development."

Comments

w00t

[thejrwr]

This just goes to show you, that the GPL is well written! Take that Microsoft!

GPL is a little tough guy

[mapkinase]

Long live common sense!

Unbeatable? I think not!

[thewiz]

The suit was against IBM, Red Hat and Novell, arguing that by distributing Linux for free, they offered products at an unbeatably low price (free), thus discouraging new market entrants and stifling competition.

Wrong, free is not unbeatable; they just need to pay the end user top use their software!

Unbeatable price?

[Anonymous Coward]

I would contend that OSS released under GPL does have a price.. that is, accepting of the GPL itself. I think that you will find that some people may find that a steep price indeed.

Re:Unbeatable price?

[Roger_Wilco]

Wrong.

Like copyright law, the GPL says nothing about users. It merely grants people the right to make copies under certain conditions. Since using it does not require any permissions you do not already have, you do not need to accept the license to use it.

The same would be the case for non-free software, except for the existance of EULAs. (And they may be on shaky legal ground.)

Seriously, folks, read it sometime. It's the clearest bit of legalese you're likely to find.

Interesting thing about the opinion...

[Anonymous Coward]

See http://www.internetcases.com/library/cases/2006-11 -09_wallace_v_ibm.pdf, where the judge goes off the rails of reality in the very first paragraph:

Authors who distribute their works under this license, devised by the Free Software Foundation, Inc., authorize not only copying but also the creation of derivative works--and the license prohibits charging for the derivative work.

If the Court makes a mistake that fundamental -- the idea that you can't charge for software derived from other GPL software -- then we should all consider ourselves lucky that the opinion in toto was correct. IANAL, but doesn't this kind of "bug" open up possible avenues for appeal?

Re:Isn't that Wallace the Spam King?

[egarff]

The closest info I could find is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Wallace_(plain tiff)

Victory over a paper tiger.

[Anonymous Coward]

The goodness of this victory is diluted by the fact that Wallace didn't have the money to properly argue his case. As such, it doesn't have much value as a precident. If someone with big bucks was making the argument, and if the GPL was being defended by someone with no resources, the decision could have gone the other way.

Note that the bully boys of the RIAA always go after people who don't have the resources to defend themselves. Even then they lose the occasional case. Justice in this country goes to whoever can hire the best lawyers.

Am I cynical? Yep.

Re:Victory over a paper tiger.

[kilgortrout]

The author of this opinion, Judge Easterbrook of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, is from the University of Chicago and is very highly respected, particularly for his opinions dealing with economic issues. He is a Reagan appointee and is noted as a very intelligent and intellectual free market proponent, in keeping with his U of C econ background. His opinions carry a lot of weight among other judges within the federal judiciary, particularly on commercial and antitrust issues.

He also has a reputation of not suffering fools lightly and he can be extremely confrontational in oral argument. I've argued two appeals before him and it's an experience I'll never forget. At any rate, the fact that this opinion came from Judge Easterbrook will carry a great deal of weight. The precedent isn't tarnished by the lackluster plaintiff. Nobody else would have the balls to contend the GPL violates antitrust laws; it's a frivolous argument from a nut. I'm sure Easterbrook tore this guy a new one in oral argument.

What was the Plaintiff thinking?

[parvenu74]

This should have been a really easy case in which prove a lack of harm to the marketplace: simply copy the GPL software released by IBM, Red Hat, and Novell onto a DVD, write your own label on the disk with a Sharpie (Sam's Software Stack, perhaps?) and then sell it to someone right there in the court room and ask the judge and the defendants if there is anything in the GPL license or the law which makes that act illegal. Case closed.

This isn't obvious

[MobyDisk]

(IANAL)

It sounds like the case didn't deal with the GPL directly. The case dealt with selling software below cost. This is important, because in some states it is illegal to sell commodities below cost. (This was to deal with Wal-mart offering loss-leaders and driving small companies out of business). So it is a valid question to ask: Is it legal to sell software below cost? The court found that unlike commodities, the software industry can thrive with companies offering free software. That makes sense to me.

To put a fine point on this, it has little to do with the GPL (a copyright) since this was not an analysis of copyright. And it had little to do with open-source, since I can sell open-source software. It deals with free (as in beer) software.

Guy with no case loses to well funded corporation.

[Anonymous Coward]

So, some guy with no legal case loses to IBM's well paid legal team.

IBM has both the law itself, and reams of money on their side. The other guy doesn't.

This is about as close as it gets to an "open and shut" case.

What's this?

[keesh]

What's this? A court that gets it and actually understands technology issues? Amazing.

What Price?

[CastrTroy]

I would contend that OSS released under GPL does have a price.. that is, accepting of the GPL itself. I think that you will find that some people may find that a steep price indeed

Unless you are comparing it to the BSD license, then there is no price. The GPL only restricts how you may redistribute the product. Most commercial software cannot be redistributed, so this is a non-issue. The GPL in no way inhibits your abilities to use the software.

Re: Victory over a paper tiger

[geoffspear]

Umm, if you think that someone with no resources could be successfully prosecuted for violating antitrust laws, you probably don't understand antitrust law at all. If you're too small to harm your competitors though anti-competitive activity, then by definition you can't violate antitrust law.

Challenge was doomed because of the Constitution.

[Zaphod-AVA]

Challenging the GPL on those grounds was doomed to fail, because the GPL's intent, and the intent of copyright are the same.

From the good ol' Constitution, Section 8:

"Congress shall have the Power"... "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries"

The whole reason we have copyright is to promote the useful sciences and arts, which is exactly what the GPL is for as well, they simply use different methods.

Stifling market entry?

[Miseph]

Admittedly, I didn't RTFA, but if the summary above is at all accurate, and part of the argument is that GPL software being "sold" for free prevents new competition, then isn't the entire argument obviously flawed? Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, Blizzard, Adobe, etc. all make a killing on non-GPL software; is someone really going to try and tell me that GPL licensed software has made it too hard for them to compete?

Besides, Linux "vendors" are really in the support business. Nobody is stopping anybody from opening up their own support business for any distro they want. It can't even be argued that the 'vendors" have some sort of unfair advantage because of exclusive access t5o the source code... because they are required to distribute it, for free, to anyone who wants it. Even direct competitors! The only barrier to entry for me from slapping a decal on my car and declaring myself a traveling Linux support tech for hire is that, well, I'd be a thoroughly useless Linux support tech. And blaming that on IBM just won't fly no matter how good my lawyer is.

Same person that sued FSF

[Dr_Art]

This is the same person that unsuccessfully sued the FSF, also for alleged antitrust reasons.

antitrust

[mikeee]

The interesting point the court made is that antitrust law is made to protect consumers, not businesses. Selling below cost violates antitrust only if it's part of a plan to drive out your competitors and jack up prices later. Since the GPL doesn't allow the 'jack up prices later' part, there's no anti-trust harm to consumers, and no grounds for action.

GPL has no price

[DragonWriter]

I would contend that OSS released under GPL does have a price.. that is, accepting of the GPL itself.

And you would be wrong, since accepting the GPL is not required to receive or use GPL'd software, by the terms of the GPL itself. It is only required to have the privilege of modifying or distributing software distributed under the GPL. Its not an EULA. You lose no right that you had without the GPL when you accept the GPL, you simply gain limited privileges that you did not have before.